Poll: Marco Rubio Big Favorite Among Republican Voters For VP Pick

Mitt Romney's still mum on who he'll pick as his VP to share the stage at this month's Republican National Convention in Tampa, but conservative voters sure aren't conflicted about who they'd choose. A new poll by CNN finds GOP-leaning voters want Marco Rubio as the veep by a wide margin.

Of course, part of that result might be Rubio's big presence in the national news. More than half those voters had never even heard of Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, whom many consider the real front-runner for the job.

The new poll, a nation-wide survey by CNN and Opinion Research Corp., found that 28 percent of registered Republicans and GOP-leaning independent voters would pick Rubio for the vice president's ticket.

Rubio's way in front of the second-place finishers, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who each nabbed 16 percent.

Part of that popularity may be simple name recognition, though, fueled by all the heavy speculation that Rubio will be the veep and all the press over his attempts to become a Republican voice on immigration.

A full 52 percent of those surveyed had never heard of Portman. Rubio was the most easily recognized name on the list of possibilities.

Insider speculation has favored Portman, who's seen as a "safer" choice than Rubio. (Read: An older white guy from a Midwestern swing state without as much sketchy financial baggage.)

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As NPR writes, presidential campaigns usually furiously scrub and rewrite their candidate's Wikipedia account once they've settled on a pick; Portman's page had been edited 16 times in the one day they watched it. (Rubio's, by contrast, had been edited 11 times over a five day period.)